Chapter 4
"WE HAVE SO MUCH HOMEWORK! What is WRONG with our teachers? They think we don't have a LIFE or something," I vented angrily to Tyson on my way to gym with him. There had only been three periods so far, and already I had so much homework I would be doing it all night.
"Get used to it Kairi," Tyson said with a grin. We stepped into the large gym, and I saw about 20 people shooting hoops or talking to friends. "The girl's locker room is over there," Tyson said, pointing, "You're gym uniform should be in the locker that's on your schedule." He walked off to the boys locker room.
I hesitantly made my way into the locker room. There were about 10 girls, chatting happily as they pulled on their uniforms. I slipped into the corner of the room, and opened my new locker. There sat a pair of purple shorts, and a dark gray shirt with the school logo on it. I hesitantly pulled it out, and began undressing.
"Hey, you must be that new girl right?" I heard behind me. I spun around on the spot, and fell over, becoming entangled with my half on shorts. Smooth you idiot. Now everyone is gonna think you're such a dork. Wait, I am a dork, but nobody needs to know! "Yeah that's me," I muttered as I stood up. The girl who spoke to me was tall, with long brown hair that was tied into a pink bow. She was stunning, with green eyes, and a graceful air about her.
"I'm Aerith," she introduced herself. "Kairi," I said. Suddenly, another girl appeared behind Aerith. She had short, black hair and big purple eyes. Her face was angry, and her voice sharp.
"Aerith, why are you talking to that new freak. She's friends with Namine; she probably already has the ugly wiped off on her," Yuffie said harshly. Aerith turned and glared at her. Before I could stop myself I said, "Well at least Namine doesn't have a growth problem." Well, it was true! Yuffie was about the size of an eight year old.
Yuffie glared viciously at me, while the other girls in the room had stopped moving altogether. "You won't here the end of this bitch," Yuffie growled before storming out of the room. Aerith looked sorry for me, as she turned to follow Yuffie out the door. Chatter resumed as usual as I pulled on the rest of my uniform.
"You're really brave! I can't believe you did that! It was brilliant." I looked up to see a geeky looking girl with an annoying voice staring at me. "Nobody has ever done that before!" I nodded and continued pulling on my shoes. The girl kinda looked awkward when I didn't give her a word answer, and slowly walked away, waving uncertainly. Wew…that was close. I really didn't want some wannabe following me around, I know it was mean but still!
I walked out of the changing room alone, and saw Tyson standing over next to Riku and Sora. I uncertainly walked over to them, I mean it was better than standing alone.
"Hey Kairi. You've met Riku and Sora right?" Tyson asked casually when I reached them. I nodded and pulled at the hem of my short shorts. Honestly. I am such a nerd around guys. I get all quiet and shit.
"Yeah, you're in our social science class right?" Sora asked conversationally. I nodded, and Riku suddenly looked as though his brain had had an aha moment. "Oh yeah!" he said enthusiastically, man was he hott when he's enthusiastic, "You're that girl who had that cool drawing. It was really good, my drawings look like scribbles." He—he just complimented me! Man, it's a good day. I felt my face heating up, and I smiled without looking at him.
"OKAY OKAY! Everybody LISTEN UP!" It was our teacher. He was tall and blonde, with a gruff, football player look about him. "My name is Cid, and today we are running 3 miles(the class groaned), and I don't want to here any of this complaining shit….if ya have a problem, take it out with the man upstairs." A few kids laughed. I liked this teacher. He said it like it was, and he was cool. I even found myself getting excited at getting to run 3 miles. I loved running, and I was sure I would get a good time.
We lined up at the edge of the woods, where the path would be. "Hey Kairi, you don't even think about waiting for me when I get started, because I suck at running," Tyson said. I laughed. "Come on, you can't be that bad!" Tyson looked like he would be sick. "Oh yes I am. You should run with Sora if you want a challenge. He's the fastest person in our grade(we were juniors)." I blushed. Run with Sora? Could be fun….
WISTLE WISTLE WISTLE(sorry I dunno how to make a whistle sound…) We all took off running. All the stupid people started sprinting off into the woods, thinking they could actually finish at that pace. Yeah, sure. I just kept going at my steady pace. I could see Sora running a few steps ahead of me as we entered the first turn. Soon, I couldn't here the pounding of footsteps behind me anymore, and I had passed all the sprinters, who were now walking. It was just me and Sora, alone, in the woods.
I sped up a bit to catch up with him, and he turned to face me. He grinned as his hair bounced up and down on his head with each step. "Do you run cross country?" he asked as we ran along. "I used to," I responded. 1,2,1,2,1,2, Hott, Sora, Hott, Sora, HOTT SORA! I shook my head to get rid of the thoughts. We continued running in silence for a while, before Sora said again, "So how do you like this school?" I thought about it. "Yeah I guess its okay. The people here are nicer than my old school, and I don't have my shitty parents to worry about," I answered. I saw Sora's mile waver for a minute but thought nothing of it. "How long have you been going here?" I asked. He mock counted on his fingers. "Like, 4 years. Since 8th grade." Wow, he's been here a long time.
I could feel the burning in my legs as we trekked up a huge hill. I leaned forward a bit to keep my pace up. Sora next to me appeared to be working just as hard, his face twisted in concentration. Once we reached the top of the hill, we immediately began going down. During this break Sora said, "Have you met my cousin, Yuffie yet?" Cousin? Yuffie was Sora's cousin? Did not expect that. "Yeah, I've met her. It wasn't exactly friendly. What does she have against me anyway?" I asked, my anger rising.
"Well, um, she has a problem with Namine, I guess, and so she hates anyone who is friends with her," He responded. I could tell he was mad about Yuffie not treating me right, and it made me feel good to know he at least cared. "Yeah Yuffie is a bit of a bitch when she wants to be," he said with a grin. "But when you get passed all that, she isn't so bad…" I frowned. I guess I hadn't gotten past all that.
In, out, in, out, breath, Yuffie, breath, equals, breath, bitch, breath, WUT IS WRONG WITH HER, breath. I struggled to keep my breathing steady as we entered the last half mile. "You're really fast,", Sora said, looking at me. I grinned. "Race YA!" I took off, focusing all my strength on the opening at the end of the trees. I heard Sora's pounding footsteps behind me, no next to me, run faster, run faster! I pushed myself to the limit of my sprinting, and burst through the trees with Sora right next to me.
Cid, who was standing there with a timer looking bored, jumped up and pressed the stop button on the timer. "Holy shit, you two just broke the record," he said aghast. I turned to Sora, ho had collapsed on the ground next to me, and we grinned at each other.